New Features

Sell Downloads or Provide them to Subscribers

Publishers can now upload individual files and present them for sale using the Tinypass API or a simple Sale Page. Advanced Publishers using the Tinypass API can create one-time links to their downloads for any user they choose, such as a subscriber.

Your users will see a clear call to action. If they’ve already purchased this content, they can always login and download it again.

Note that you’re seeing this content in the same way a user who has not purchased it would. If you’ve made a test purchase and return to this page, you may see only the Download link since you now have access to download (or re-download) this content.

Customize Cover Art and Description

Using the Sale Page is the easiest way to sell your content, but without an attractive cover image and description of the content, you may not be extracting maximum value.

The Sale Page

A new user will see your download information, cover image and description on the Sale Page.

Upon completing the purchase process (or if the user chooses to Login instead and already has access), they will see the download link. Once they’ve purchased it, they can return to this page at any time and re-authenticate to re-download their content.

Sell Downloads using the Tinypass SDK

If you want to sell directly from your site and are familiar with the Tinypass SDK, you can further customize your download offering.

For example, using the Tinypass SDK you can check access and offer your download for sale. Here’s a single-page example in PHP:

Security of Downloads

When a download is sold as a resource, access is controlled according to the agreed-upon offer terms. That means a consumer with access to the resource can download it directly from their dashboard as long as that access is valid.

If you are using advanced features to determine that a consumer should have access when they have not purchased the specific download, you are effectively granting access for the moment you generate the link. Since they have not been granted permanent access to the download resource, they will need to use the same process on the publisher’s site to get the download link again later.

The link generated for a download is valid for a short period after generation. This means it’s important that generated links are used immediately to keep the user’s experience smooth. This also prevents accidental or intentional sharing of the link from exposing your valuable content to unauthorized use.

Welcome to Piano!

We're happy you found us! You may already be using Piano, or just starting to learn about it. Either way, we're excited to see you here. We love valuable content as much as you do - that's why we work day and night to make sure you can support your content business with beautiful and simple software tools.

Who are we?

Piano is a dedicated and professional organization comprised of professionals from journalism, advertising, design, and banking. We came together because we believe that in this digital world there should be more than one bookstore, more than one music store, and more than one video store. We are based in New York, and love to hear from our customers in person or on the phone.

What we offer

Piano is a flexible platform that can help you with things like raising money for charity, selling a web series, or creating a payment solution like the New York Times. Chances are, if you have a website, and you are trying to make money from it, Piano has a solution for you. Want to find the right product for you? Visit our Choosing a Solution page.

In addition to these software products, Piano offers you AND your users outstanding customer support from our New York office. We care about you and our product, if you ever have a suggestion or a problem, just email support@Piano.io or give us a call at +1 646-350-1999 and dial 0 for "Human Being."

The first step - signing up

Signing up for a publisher account is FREE and you are not committed to ANYTHING. If you are deciding between software products other than Piano, we encourage you to just type in a few things and sign up for an account so that you can poke around the publisher dashboard. Seriously... just sign up for an account. It's free, and you'll like what you see: https://dashboard.Piano.io/register

When you sign up for an account, you'll automatically be in trial mode. After you update your business information, then you can submit your application for review. It usually takes us less than 24 hours to approve/deny an application. For more information about our approval process, check out the Registration & Application section.

Getting paid

Thirty days after a transaction takes place, you can withdraw the money. We have this waiting period to protect you (and us) from dealing with refunds, chargebacks, and business disasters. You can get paid by check, direct deposit wire transfer, DWOLLA, or Paypal.

How does Piano make money?

"Wait, is it actually free?" Well obviously it's not free. We take a percentage of each transaction to cover payment processing fees. Please contact support@Piano.io for our fees. You may find yourself thinking I could be charged directly by the payment provider if I used Stripe or PayPal..." But unlike those payment gateways, we let you control access to content, customize site experiences, set business rules, manage user accounts, view analytics, and provide end-user customer service.

Enterprise clients

Piano offers professional services and enterprise pricing to clients that meet a certain threshold. You know who you are, and if you are interested in talking to our enterprise sales team, just call +1646-350-1999 and press 1 for sales. In addition to our software, we also offer consulting services that we like to call Content Monetization Planning.